It’s funny how warm 45 degrees feels this winter. Ok, maybe funny isn’t the right word, but it was Saturday, 45 and sunny so we had to get out. Jake, Neil, Blake and I met at Southern Hills. I got there first with a shovel and broom. I was skeptical at first, but started shoveling around the ledges and it seemed like it might be good. Neil and Blake warmed up with a game of SKATE. Blake and I had some lines going. Kickflip into the tiny bank with no speed, trick on the bench (he did noseslide, I did front jib), ollie up the two stair, turn around and ollie down the two over a pile of snow. So fun! I got a crooks on the bench and was starting to feel good when a security guard came and ruined everything. Argh.

Lots of driving and looking later we found this and it ended up being quite fun. I took the panorama at the end while driving so it screwed up, but whatever.

We messed around at another bank at this spot, but a puddle could not be tamed under it so we gave up. We started pretty basic, but some fun lines came of it. Trick into the far left bank, ollie onto or manual the sidewalk, push up the bank then ollie off the loading dock. We all did it with kickflips to start. Blake added a front 180 off the dock since he’s goofy. As you can see the landing of the loading dock wasn’t exactly ideal, lots of water. I tried a line for quite a while. Varial flip into the bank, ollie onto the sidewalk (although in the one I got I actually manualled it), then back 180 off the dock. The back 180 could maybe only qualify as an over 40 Baker Maker. I was hyped on that though.

We lurked around for awhile and found this nearby. Neil skated the manny pad and nose mannied it. Blake and I dropped in on this narrow brick retainer. He landed it first. I was scared at first. Then did one and kickflipped off the curb. Blake front 180’d off the curb. Pretty fun. At the end I took too many tries to manual the manny pad.

After several days with very cold temperatures it’s crazy how warm 29 degrees feels. It felt so warm I wanted to skate outside! Since it was still business hours and there was snow everywhere I went to this abandoned business knowing something would be dry. I was kinda bummed to not have the curb up/down as an option, but I made due. I was still pretty sore/arthritic so for awhile I just pushed and did chinese nollies off the metal grates. It felt good to have the sun in my eyes. Eventually kickflips started coming and then more. Did a line of pop shove, kickflip, varial flip that took me awhile, but got me warmed up. Tried to f/s halfcab over a metal grate and it took me forever. They stick up a little and it totally weirded me out. I did eventually get it and then kickflipped the next one which is longer because you have to pop a couple feet early because of a crack. The concrete is super rough at this spot. I could not land a treflip to save my life. One excuse I’ll make is that my Venom bushings blew out on day one of the new PJ trucks and keep getting worse. It seems to make a little unexpected twist right before I wind up and pop for that trick. Pretty lame excuse right? Well I’m gonna get some new bushings soon hopefully. I tried a bunch of tricks unsuccessfully. Varial heel, front heel, switch flip, nollie varial flip. Tried a line of kickflip or front shove over the grate (front shove took way too long), front 180 the next one then switch varial flip. Never got the sw varial flip. started trying halfcab flip over a grate and got one that felt so good. Once again I skated like crap and probably skate too much for my body, but I liked being outside in the sun.

On another very cold day I went to Sol right after work. I was wanting my typical after work nap and feeling very arthritic, but oh well. Bernie was there and after a few games of foosball with Allan, Bernie and I skated some flat. I was feeling so bad. Like I would never be able to do a kickflip. At first I kinda just did some slide around 180s. We started up with a game of SKATE though and it ended up getting better. I managed to win it on a nollie varial flip that Bernie probably shouldn’t have counted. Longmont Chad and another dude had joined us. They were ripping. After SKATE we messed around with some more flatground. I could not get varial heel, front heel or fakie tre. I tried a lot of fakie tres. Argh.

Then Dave showed and we skated the ramp. Man I sucked. Arthritis makes me feel so disoriented so skating that ramp when I feel so rotten is guaranteed suck. I landed nothing I was proud of and everytime I went to get back up on the deck my legs hurt. Bernie had fun. Lots of back 50s, front pivots, front tails and more. Dave skated good for him which says a lot. Long back 5-0s, boardslide fakies. His bag is full of tricks. Loved the b/s ollie truck bash, fakie pop rocks, so much more. It makes me want to get better at ramps. Chad skates the ramp like he skates flat. It’s so gnarly. He pops, hovers and commits. I’m jealous.

Went out to Rampy on a very cold night (-10 degrees) after helping the kids with their homework. It’s funny, not only did I daydream of skateboarding when I had homework years ago, but now I do the same when I’m helping my kids with it. So funny! I started out with some mediocre runs on Rampy to get the legs flowing. My arthritis was acting up a little, but I was determined to not let it bother me. I started wanting to do some Rampy tricks and then kind of started skating more flatground and then kind of just lost interest in the ramp altogether. I had gotten a fakie front pivot to fakie (about as unproper as it gets), a back smith and almost a fakie front feeble. Flatground went off. I started going through almost all of my tricks. Kickflip, pop shoves, fakie flip, varial flip, heelflip, fakie varial flip, halfcab flips, bs and fs flips, treflip and started digging into rarer tricks. Couldn’t get close on hardflip or switch flip. Started trying varial heel and much to my surprise and stoke I got one! I looked back through my skate journal and couldn’t even find when I landed one. So that means it’s been over 5 years since I’ve landed one. Hyped! Also added nollie varial flip, fakie bigflip (so hard in such little space), f/s haflcab heelflip and then several tries later got a switch varial flip! So hyped. It’s been a long time on that one too as I couldn’t find any makes in my journal. Whoa, two tricks in one night that I haven’t landed in over 5 years. Keep in mind though I’m basically skating in a 4′ x 8′ space so I’m going super slow. I don’t really care though, I was having a blast. Since I had done f/s halfcab heel and varial heel I felt like it might be my lucky night to get my first front 180 heel. It was so hard to setup for that trick in such little space, but I kept getting close, kept trying, almost gave up, started getting close again and then landed one. Whew! What a cool feeling trick! I should probably land one in the streets for it to officially count for my new years goal of 12 new flip tricks, but for now, I don’t care and I’m calling it. 2/12! Front heel! I might be the only 40 year old that would rather skate the flat of a ramp. Ha.

Wes Kremer is so good. I must say I have a lot of respect for Sk8Mafia. Even though it’s not my style they have stuck to their guns for years and they keep pumping out footage and progressing. Kudus.

After a rough night of not getting much sleep due to our furnace not working correctly and having to get up to reset it every few hours, a long day at work, more furnace stuff, a nap (the best) and dinner I headed out on a chilly night (27 degrees) to my favorite parking garage off Valmont. It’s somewhat protected from outside and I thought it would be warmer, but the ice in the garage said otherwise. I thought I would be pretty worthless since I’ve skated so many days in a row again, but right out of the gate things felt pretty good. After my typical warming up of pushing, wallies, slappy tails and stuff I grabbed Ledgy and had some fun runs. Halfcab flip, ollie up the curb, kickflip off, crooks. Front 50 Ledgy, almost kick back tail. Had a really fun feeling line of 360 flip, front slappy a parking block, ollie up the rounded sidewalk by the entrance and no comply 180 off. Flip tricks were going alright. Back 50s on the ledge were not though. I guess with my small wheels there isn’t much clearance and it hangs up and pitches me forward on the screw. I gotta countersink that better or something. Did my first ever switch front nose on Ledgy. It was weak sauce. I couldn’t get front 50 front 180, Ledgy is just too quick for my slow feet. Got a front 5-0. Halfcab noseslide. Almost fakie nosegrind. Frontside flip. The best part was I was skating really hard. I turned Ledgy sideways and tried to ollie it. I think I’ve ollied it before, but it’s never been easy. But this time it only took about 5 tries and I was super hyped. Then I came remotely close to a fakie flip front tail on the little curb. Man that would rule my world. Any time I would think I should stop skating I would try a flip trick and get hyped up. I landed a lot of 360 flips. Eventually though, I got tired and cold and decided to call it a night.

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Only 21 degrees out, but the sun felt warm so I talked Ollie into doing a little pre super bowl skating.  We drove around most of Boulder before finding this spot.  As you can see it’s nothing special. The asphalt was rough and the cracks big, but it was dry and the sun felt nice so we went for it.  Ollie lasted about ten minutes before he got bored and started throwing snowballs. He ollied up the curb a couple times, rolled through piles of snow and did some curb cut manuals first.  I ollied a couple little piles of snow, had a great feeling heelflip, bs flip almost nollie varial flip.  Then settled in on a line of pop shove up the sidewalk then varial flip on flat and a front shove off the curb cut.  It wasn’t pretty and it took awhile, but whatevs it’ll probably  be the last time I skate outside for awhile as the forecast looks brutal.

Went to the Steelyards after a busy morning of running errands and then trying to find some motivation to skate on a cold and snowy Saturday. I went to the Steelyards without Ledgy as I didn’t feel like carrying it. Upon entering that garage I lost even more motivation. Half the lights were out and it seemed so creepy, cold and not good for skating. But I went for it. Just found one section of dry crete that was lit and rattled off flippers. I ended up going through most of my bag. I had problems with fakie varial flip and treflip, but did land them. Couldn’t get a fakie heelfip. Posed switch flips. Got another 3 shove. Got nollie tre and nollie varial flip. Left depressed. Winter and that parking garage suck.